1Caption: Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president 2 In the 1700s and 1800s, small states in Europe combined into larger ones. Many of the countries that we learn about in history classes formed during those years. In more recent times, however, just the opposite has been happening. Large countries have split. Smaller groups have broken loose to form their own countries.3 This has resulted in civil wars and ethnic conflicts. One place where this has occurred is in Serbia. Serbia was one of the parts of the former Yugoslavia, which had once been a large Communist country. Yugoslavia was already beginning to separate into smaller states by the time that Slobodan Milosevic became president. Milosevic had plans to recombine some of the states under the leadership of Serbia, but the newly independent states had other ideas.4 The conflicts grew into a bloody civil war. One main part of the conflict occurred between Serbia and the province to its south called Kosovo. Kosovo was the home of ethnic Albanians who wanted their own independent state. By 1996, Kosovo had its own army - the Kosovo Liberation Army, or KLA.5 At times, the KLA would have the upper hand and take control of Kosovo; at other times, the Serbs would take command of Kosovo.